1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system such as a host computer for controlling a printing apparatus such as an ink-jet printer that performs a printing operation by firing droplets of ink at paper through a nozzle of a print head wherein the ink is supplied from an ink reservoir to the print head, and also relates to an information processing method for handling such a system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink-jet printer has the capability of detecting the amount of remaining ink, which prevents a printing error which would otherwise occur due to lack of ink. According to this capability, the amount of ink remaining in an ink reservoir is detected and the result is displayed. If the detected amount becomes less than a lower limit, a warning is given or a printing operation is stopped.
There are various known techniques for detecting the amount of ink remaining in an ink reservoir, and some of them are in practical use.
One of the techniques is to dispose a proper sensor in an ink reservoir so as to directly detect the amount of remaining ink. For example, two electrodes are disposed in an ink reservoir in such a manner that the electrodes are in contact with ink so as to detect the resistance between the two electrodes that changes depending on the amount of remaining ink. In another technique similar to the above first technique, a light beam is used to illuminate ink in an ink reservoir. If there is ink in the ink reservoir, the light beam is absorbed by the ink and cannot reach a photodector. On the other hand, if no ink is in the ink reservoir, the light beam can travel through the ink reservoir without being absorbed, and can reach the photo detector. Thus, it is possible to detect whether there is ink in the ink reservoir. Hereinafter, the above-described methods will be referred to as a sensor method.
In a second category of methods, the number of operations of emitting ink droplets via a print head is counted, and the result is compared with the previously estimated maximum possible number of printing dots or the maximum number of ink droplets that can be supplied from one ink reservoir thereby indirectly estimating the consumption of ink. Hereafter, this technique is referred to as a xe2x80x9cdot counting method.xe2x80x9d
The printing apparatus having the capability described above is controlled by a host computer. However, the host computer cannot know the status regarding the amount of remaining ink of the printing apparatus, and thus cannot tell a user the status in a visual or other fashions.
To obtain a good result in printing, the ink-jet printer has to know the status of the printer with respect to the items including those described below.
First, the printer has to detect the distance between paper or printing medium and the ink emission plane of a print head so that printing is performed correctly at desired positions.
In conventional printers, as shown in FIGS. 38 to 40, there is provided a lever 301 for adjusting the paper position. By using this lever, the paper position is switched between a standard paper position and a thick paper position so as to optimize the paper position for both standard paper and thick paper such as a post card.
In the above-described conventional printing system, if the system has a fatal error associated with for example the paper position adjustment, the error is indicated only on the printer via audio or optical means. Therefore, the user has to come to the printer to know what error the printer has, and then has to handle the error, which is very inconvenient for the user.
Furthermore, in the conventional printing system the user cannot know the type of printing medium via a display of the host computer.
It is a general object of the present invention to solve the above problems. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing system and method for acquiring remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge of a printer and displaying a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information so that a user can select either replacing of the ink cartridge in the printer or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an information processing system and method for: analyzing the color so as to determine the color to be used by a printing apparatus; acquiring remaining-amount information from a printing apparatus, the remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink of the determined color remaining in an ink cartridge; and displaying a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information so that a user can select either replacing of the ink cartridge containing the ink having the color to be used or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an information processing system and method for: judging whether the printing mode of a printing apparatus is a monochrome mode or a color mode; acquiring remaining-amount information from the printing apparatus in response to the judgement result, the remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in a color ink cartridge to be used; and displaying a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information so that a user can select either replacing of the ink cartridge containing ink of the color to be used or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
It is a further object of the present to provide an information processing system and method for: acquiring remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge disposed in a printing apparatus; and displaying a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information so that a user can select either replacing of the ink cartridge in the printing apparatus or designation of an alternative color different from the color of the ink in the above-described ink cartridge.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an information processing system and method for: acquiring remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge disposed in a printing apparatus; and displaying a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information so that a user can select either designation of an alternative color different from the color of the ink in the above-described ink cartridge or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an information processing system and method for: comparing the number of dots contained in dot image information with the number of dots that can be printed by a printing apparatus; and controlling the generation of the dot image information depending on the result of the above comparison.
The above objects are achieved by the present invention having various aspects as described below. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including: acquisition means for acquiring remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge disposed in the printing apparatus; and display control means for controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either replacing of the ink cartridge in the printing apparatus or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including: analysis means for analyzing a color to be used by the printing apparatus; acquisition means for acquiring remaining-amount information from the printing apparatus, said remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge, the ink having the color analyzed by the above analysis means; and display control means for controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either replacing of the ink cartridge containing ink having the color to be used by the printing apparatus or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including: judgement means for judging whether a printing mode of the printing apparatus is a monochrome mode or a color mode; acquisition means for acquiring remaining-amount information from the printing apparatus in response to a judgement result by the above judgement means, the remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink of a color to be used remaining in an ink cartridge; and display control means for controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either replacing of the ink cartridge containing ink of the color to be used by the printing apparatus or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including: acquisition means for acquiring remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge disposed in the printing apparatus; and display control means for controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either replacing of the ink cartridge in the printing apparatus or designation of an alternative color different from a color of the ink in the ink cartridge.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including: acquisition means for acquiring remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge disposed in the printing apparatus; and display control means for controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either designation of an alternative color different from a color of the ink in the ink cartridge or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system for outputting dot image information to a printing apparatus, including: comparison means for comparing a number of dots contained in the dot image information with a number of dots that can be printed by the printing apparatus; and control means for controlling the generation of the dot image information depending on a result of the comparison means.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for use in an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including the steps of: acquiring remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge disposed in the printing apparatus; and controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either replacing of the ink cartridge in the printing apparatus or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for use in an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including the steps of: analyzing a color to be used by the printing apparatus; acquiring remaining-amount information from the printing apparatus, the remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge, the ink having the color analyzed in the above analyzing step; and controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either replacing of the ink cartridge containing ink of the color to be used by the printing apparatus or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for use in an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including the steps of: judging whether a printing mode of the printing apparatus is a monochrome mode or a color mode; acquiring remaining-amount information from the printing apparatus in response to a judgement result obtained in the judgement step, the remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink of a color to be used remaining in an ink cartridge; and controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either replacing of the ink cartridge containing ink of the color to be used by the printing apparatus or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for use in an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including the steps of: acquiring remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge disposed in the printing apparatus; and controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either replacing of the ink cartridge in the printing apparatus or designation of an alternative color different from a color of the ink in the ink cartridge.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for use in an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including the steps of: acquiring remaining-amount information representing the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge disposed in the printing apparatus; and controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired remaining-amount information, the message advising a user to select either designation of an alternative color different from a color of the ink in the ink cartridge or returning to a process performed by the information processing system.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for use in an information processing system for outputting dot image information to a printing apparatus, including the steps of: comparing a number of dots contained in the dot image information with a number of dots that can be printed by the printing apparatus; and controlling the generation of the dot image information depending on a result in the comparing step.
According to the aspects described above, the host computer can acquire the status regarding the amount of remaining ink of the printing apparatus, and notify a user of the acquired status in a visual fashion so that the user can select the following operation via the display means.
Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to provide an information processing system and method for: acquiring information representing the distance between a print head of a printing apparatus and a printing medium; and displaying identification information about the printing medium in response to the acquired information, the identification information being set in the printing apparatus, thereby providing an improved user interface and ease of operation.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an information processing system and method for: acquiring information representing an ink cartridge mounting status of a printing apparatus; and displaying a message on display means in response to the acquired information so that a user can select an alternative color different from a color of the ink in the above-described ink cartridge, thereby providing an improved user interface and ease of operation.
The above objects are also achieved by the present invention having various aspects as described below. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including: acquisition means for acquiring information representing the distance between a print head of the printing apparatus and a printing medium; and display control means for controlling display of identification information about the printing medium in response to the acquired information, the identification information being set in the printing apparatus.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including: acquisition means for acquiring information representing an ink cartridge mounting status of the printing apparatus; and display control means for controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired information, the message advising a user to select an alternative color different from a color of the ink in the ink cartridge.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for use in an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including the steps of: acquiring information representing the distance between a print head of the printing apparatus and a printing medium; and controlling display of identification information about the printing medium in response to the acquired information, the identification information being set in the printing apparatus.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for use in an information processing system for controlling a printing apparatus, including the steps of: acquiring information representing an ink cartridge mounting status of the printing apparatus; and controlling display of a message on display means in response to the acquired information, the message advising a user to select an alternative color different from a color of the ink in the ink cartridge.
According to the above-described aspect of the invention, the information processing system can acquire information representing the distance between a print head of a printing apparatus and a printing medium and display identification information about the printing medium in response to the acquired information, the identification information being set in the printing apparatus, thereby providing an improved user interface and ease of operation.
Furthermore, the information processing system can acquire information representing the ink cartridge mounting status of a printing apparatus and display a message on display means in response to the acquired information so that a user can select an alternative color different from the color of the ink in the above-described ink cartridge, thereby providing an improved user interface and ease of operation.